Survey results just released by USA Today show that "more than 60% of American parents want their kids to learn about the ongoing effects of slavery and racism as part of their K-12 education."
But that innocuous finding was drowned out by a more newsworthy one: There's a 14% difference from the same respondents when asked if they favored Critical Race Theory (CRT). Contrasting a 63-30% margin of Americans saying they favored teaching slavery's effects with just a 49-30% margin favoring CRT, USA Today popped a gotcha headline:
"Parents want kids to learn about ongoing effects of slavery – but not critical race theory. They're the same thing."
Good for the newspaper, one might suppose, although it's worth noting that the only difference in the responses was that 21% answered "don't know" about CRT as opposed to just 8% saying "don't know" about slavery.
There's actually a reasonable explanation for that. CRT is far more pervasive in right-wing media and GOP political talking points than it is in American K-12 schools -- where it's almost non-existent -- so respondents might be forgiven for their unfamiliarity with CRT.
It turns out the lead was buried, drowned out by the noise of the manufactured CRT debate. Lost in the shuffle were two key takeaways: 1) that an astonishing number of respondents -- largely white Republicans -- don't believe slavery should be taught in schools as a matter of ongoing concern at all; and 2) that both the racial and partisan gaps are resounding.
Here are the topline findings:
Democrats favor teaching about the ongoing effects of slavery and racism by a margin of 82-15%, while Republicans oppose such teaching by 53-38%.
Blacks favor such teaching by an overwhelming 82-11%, but whites overall by just 53-38%. Both Hispanics and Asians had 75% pluralities in favor.
One can make a case that the real headline here is that by a very substantial margin, Republicans oppose teaching that slavery and racism have going effects. It would have been interesting to see some follow-up questions as to why.
For those opposing teaching about these effects, is their position that they don't exist? Would they agree would the statement: "Slavery and racism in America are a thing of the past and have no relevance today?"
Or perhaps they might have been queried one of these: "Do you believe slavery and racism ever existed in America?" Or "Do you agree with the statement that there were fine people on both sides of the slavery issue?"
Finally, "Do you agree that there are ongoing effects of slavery and racism, but that it's not appropriate for these to be taught or discussed in my kid's school?"
There might be many ways to drill down into why such a solid majority of Republicans don't believe there's anything to see here regarding slavery and racism. Or, for that matter, how is it that 15% of the Democrats don't believe that the effects of slavery and racism should be taught in school?
In either case, it's more interesting than the question of why so many people have no opinion about CRT.
